Caring for your Makeup Brushes

Proper care and maintenance of our makeup brushes is essential and oftentimes is one of the most neglected tasks.

I’ve seen folks spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on palletes and organization for their makeup, yet they forget one of the most important things – Keeping their brushes clean and sanitary.

Could you imagine dropping $60 on a pallete and then using a brush that has bacteria, dead skin cells, and dust on it? Yep, that’s what everyone does when they don’t keep their brushes clean – they contaminate their products and their faces….ewwwww.

The good news is that it is easy to properly maintain your make-up brushes and keep them clean and in optimal condition. Here is BeautyBallerina’s step-by-step guide on how to clean your make-up brushes.

Once your brush is appropriately wet swirl the brush in the cleanser in the palm of your hand. (You will see that the cleanser turns the color of whatever products are in the brush.) Rinse under the tap gently manipulating the brush bristles to ensure a thorough clean.

Repeat the process until you see that the gentle cleanser no longer changes color.

Gently squeeze and tap out excess water and leave your brush to dry on a clean paper towel.

Once your brushes are completely dry you can put them back into their storage case.

Some Important Make-up Brush tips:

Never use Heat on your brushes (hot water, blow dryer, etc.) or you will loosen the bonds that holds the bristles in place.

Never scrub your brushes aggressively as this will damage either natural or synthetic bristles.

If your brushes are made from wooden handles make sure to dry the handles thoroughly before placing on the paper towel for the bristles to dry.

Do not use cleansers that contain sulfates as this can dry out the bristles.

I recommend washing your most often use brushes weekly.

If you have acne prone skin or any active or erupted comodones on your skin I suggest washing your brushes after each use so that you do not spread bacteria to the rest of your face or contaminate your make-up.

Do not blow excess product off your brushes (ewww – you are basically spitting on them) tap off excess product onto a paper towel or baby wipe.